Your say: letters

13 February, 2008

Page 16

In his articles for British Baker Tony Phillips said what most of us think but are too frightened to say. Not for him a mass of meaningless gibberish and jargon, trotted out on every occasion by many so called business leaders.

His writings were full of common sense, a commodity in very short supply. He will be greatly missed.Patrick Sullivan, Managing director, Frigova ProduceRoy Flint, a great asset to the NAMB, lost his fight against cancer on Wednesday 4 February. Roy came up through the ranks of the London and South East Region to become the youngest male NAMB president in 1995. From sterling work as chairman of finance, he went on to be a no-nonsense treasurer of the association.Roy was a craft baker as well as a supplier to some major supermarkets. Initially the business was made up of Roy, his dedicated wife Elizabeth, son William in the bakery and James in marketing. William is now heavily involved in health and safety and James joined the police force.Roy was proud of his family and grand-children. In his spare time, he was also a keen sailor. Roy is another character of the NAMB and will be truly missed by those who knew him.Gill Brooks-Lonican, CEO, NAMBRenowned pastry chef Gaston Lenôtre passed away last month.
This was particularly sad news for myself, and Honeyrose, as I had the privilege of doing my apprenticeship with him at his Paris school, Ecole Lenôtre, in the mid-1980s. He took me under his wing, perhaps as I was learning French and new to Paris, and encouraged me to join his staff while I finished my training there. I can still remember when Gaston would make the rounds at his school all the apprentices would be terrified - he did not abide incompetence and was highly vocal, not shying from giving public dressing-downs if he felt they were deserved. But he was equally generous in his praise when he found that spark in a student that had tried, that had "it". We lived for that praise.Once graduating from Ecole Lenôtre, I was honoured to be asked to join his management team, starting with internal staff training at Lenôtre, and then went on to open Lenôtre's operations into the German market. I started Honeyrose Bakery in the UK, based on craft baking skills I had learned from Gaston Lenôtre.Lenôtre's Paris production centre had 500 bakers baking by hand, inimitably focusing on quality and taste. He proved that quality hand-baking can be a scale business by growing the company to over 35 stores in 12 countries, then selling it to the hotel group Accor in 1985.Lise Madsen, Founder and MD, Honeyrose Bakery